The Goalie played showdown with Lou Lamoriello and won. Martin Brodeur says he might have left the Devils if he hadn’t forced them to offer a second year on his new contract.
The Goalie shook off Lamoriello’s one-year contract offer and hired an agent to test the free agent market Sunday. Brodeur said he received a pair of two-year contract offers — probably from the Blackhawks and Panthers — and went back to Lamoriello, who suddenly found a way to offer that second year he wouldn’t before.
The result is The Goalie received a two-year contract worth some $9 million, with a no-trade clause, which will see him through to age 42. The sides agreed Sunday evening, and the Devils announced it yesterday, when they also signed backup Johan Hedberg, also for two years, keeping last season’s goaltending partnership intact.
“We did entertain some offers, but at the end, the Devils were able to come through with the extra year,” Brodeur said. “For me, the most important thing was to get a two-year deal. The Devils weren’t ready for a little while to do that. When they were able to get it done, that was a pretty easy decision to make.
“[Leaving] was a possibility if the Devils wouldn’t give an extra year. Every team we talked to, we talked about a two-year deal. We had no interest in a one-year deal going somewhere else. If in the first hour, hour and a half, no one would sign me for two years, we would have gone back to Lou with the one-year offer.”
Brodeur holds the NHL regular season records of 1,191 games, 656 victories and 119 shutouts. The Devils’ first-round pick in 1990 (20th overall), he made his NHL debut in 1992, spent 1992-93 in Utica and came up to stay in 1993-94.
Both Brodeur and Hedberg are believed to have taken less than they were offered elsewhere to remain with the Devils.
Hedberg gained a $150,000 raise to $1.4 million per season in his new deal, which also includes a no-trade clause. Still, it is believed he will be the best-paid backup in the NHL. He was 17-7-2 last season, 32-19-4 as a Devil. Brodeur went 31-21-4 last season.
“It will definitely bring stability to the back end, like we’ve had for the last year and a half,” Brodeur said. “[Hedberg’s workload] really helped me out to be fresh and play well in the end of the season and into the playoffs.”
Brodeur said he wasn’t sure if the Devils’ financial troubles played any part in initially refusing a second year, and also said he never wanted to go elsewhere.
“All I know is New Jersey,” he said. “All my friends are in New Jersey. It was hard that people thought I wanted to leave. I didn’t want to do that.”
Brodeur said the two-year deal means he’ll be back next season, whenever it is, “lockout or no lockout,” as he put it.
“A one year deal, I didn’t think was good for me,” he said. “In the back of my mind, New Jersey was the No. 1 choice, by far, but I talked to two teams, and it was interesting.
“Lou made every effort to keep me in New Jersey, tweaking it at our request in different areas on his one-year [offer]. But the big thing to me was the uncertainty of the possible lockout.”
Brodeur said he wondered how it would turn out when he became an unrestricted free agent Sunday.
“There’s always a risk when you pass that time of 12 noon,” he said. “ ‘Now what’s going to happen?’ I wasn’t sure of Lou’s mindset and wanted to sign a two-year deal. I looked at all my options with the potential lockout, and it wasn’t there at the time with the Devils.”
It turned out Brodeur held the winning cards in his showdown with Lamoriello.
“I’m excited. I’m really happy about getting this thing done,” Brodeur said. “It’s where I wanted to be.”
It would have been a black eye for the Devils to lose The Goalie, and Lamoriello wouldn’t make that final gamble.